March 20 was the one-year anniversary of  the White House Kitchen Garden, and Mrs. Obama’s project continues inspire us all – as well as her campaign for health and fresh, local food.

I recently read a post on the small winter  harvest from the garden – an amazing story of the garden that survived Snowmaggedon 2010 – one of the worst winter storms in history. In spite of the harsh winter weather, the garden produced about 50lbs of produce, according to Sam Kass – White House assistant chef and Food Initiative Coordinator. Watch as he tells the story in this video:

Being that I am constantly struggling to grow anything beyond some simple herbs on my deck, it is stories like this that give me hope.

I live in a modest townhome in extreme suburbia and this year I am working on both a deck garden and a few small garden beds in my back yard. My whole family is involved from choosing what we are growing, to building the raised beds, to planting the seedlings – and eventually nurturing the plants and harvesting the bounty. There are more lessons in this process that can be counted – and the time, experience, and satisfaction is (and will be) great.

No matter where you live – whether it is an urban, suburban, or a rural setting, I urge you to grow some of your own food. Trust me, if I can do this – anyone can.

5 resources to get you thinking – and even started on your path:

1. Proof you can grow your food anywhere – from Yahoo Green
2. Learn what a suburban garden IS and IS NOT – Garden Rant
3. Ordering seeds – Seeds of Change
4. Don’t have anywhere to plant? Start or participate in a community garden – American Community Gardening Association
5. Get an edible schoolyard started at one of your local schools – The Edible Schoolyard

Getting ourselves more connected with where our food comes from, celebrating the ‘fruits’ or our labor (literally), enjoying the exquisite flavor of food that travels from our backyard to our plate, making a ritual with our families and communities to prepare and enjoy meals together are only a few reasons to do this.

Please share your ideas, reasons, rants and plans here!

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been in the news a lot lately, including the not-so-surprising revelation just last week that it is worse for your health than plain old sugar.

HFCS is bad stuff, make no mistake about it.  Research is showing that it has a number of detrimental affects on humans, including increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, hypertension, and more.  HFCS can mess up your body in ways you never thought possible.  Stay away from the stuff.

HFCS is a sneaky insidious ingredient that shows up in pretty much every food produced, even when you wouldn’t expect it.  I am hyper-vigilant about not bringing food with HFCS into my house, yet a search of my pantry and fridge a few minutes ago showed that some had slithered in.  Ignoring for a moment my children’s leftover Halloween candy (which I should probably throw away at this point), let’s look at what I found — wheat crackers, canned beans, barbecue sauce, and hot dog relish (my husband and I have no idea where that came from).

A few places where you would expect to find HFCS in my kitchen, but won’t:  sodas, popsicles, ketchup, jam, and cereal.  Go into any conventional grocery store and those foods will have HFCS in them, but I’ve intentionally sought out alternatives without it.

Sodas have been a particular thorn in my side.  I don’t drink them very often — maybe once or twice a month — but when I do I really like Coke, which is sweetened with HFCS.  In Canada and Europe, Cokes are sweetened with sugar and believe me, you CAN tell a difference in the flavor.  This time of year, it’s possible to find sugar-sweetened Cokes in the grocery store — in the kosher foods section — otherwise, I’d have to ask a friend send them from Canada, which is just not worth the effort.

My daughters like root beer or creme soda with their Friday night pizza, which led to a two-year (and continuing) search for options without HFCS.  There used to be a great root beer produced right here in Virginia; unfortunately, it appears to be no longer available.  I also found a creme soda that is made by a family-owned company and which used to be carried by Whole Foods, but no longer is.  Luckily, World Market has it.  They sell it by the individual bottles and their inventory is spotty, so I asked the store manager to order a case of it for me, which should last us a few months.  Yes, it’s a lot more expensive than regular sodas, but since my family uses them up at the rate of two every Friday, I’m not going to sweat the extra cost.

But what about the average family that’s struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford to pay more for foods that don’t have lab-produced crap in them?  That’s the challenge, because until Americans throw a huge national hissy fit and say, “We’re not eating this garbage anymore,” the industrial food companies will continue to sneak HFCS and other corn products into foods where they have no business being.

So what does all this have to do with eating locally?

If you eat local foods, the chance that they’ll contain HFCS drops dramatically.  A jar of jam bought at Kroger or Giant is going to have HFCS in it; whereas homemade jam from the farmers’ market will not.  Little Debbie Snack Cakes and Sara Lee products have HFCS in them (not to mention a number of other sneaky corn products), but treats purchased from local bakeries will not.

Also, cook your own foods, so that you know what’s in there.  And by cooking, I mean from scratch, not from a box.  I made brownies this weekend and they were every bit as easy as a boxed mix, but much, much tastier.  (And now gone, as my daughters agreed and consumed every crumb over the course of three days.)

Finally, educate yourself.  Read any of Michael Pollan‘s books and then rent the DVD King Corn to get a really good look at corn in America.  After that, start reading labels when you go to the grocery store.  You’ll be amazed at what you find.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution movement has become the tipping point for regular Americans on food consciousness, health, and the impact that our food habits have on our children and communities. Starting with his food revolution in the UK, then the TED Prize, a series of fabulous books, and now a prime-time TV show on ABC – Jamie is taking on what is probably the most pressing health and economic issue facing Americans today: FOOD.

His new show premieres in a 2-hour event tonight (March 26) (check program times here), the first hour is already available to watch on ABC’s site and a sneak peek aired this past Sunday. Here is the trailer:

It is not enough for us to simply sit on the couch, watch the show and agree with him. All of us need to take responsibility and do something about it.

10 things to do right now:

1. Watch the show this evening
2. View the Jamie Oliver TED Prize Video – and learn about his ‘One Wish’
3. Learn about what he did for the school lunch system in the UK
4. Sign the petition to improve school food and save cooking skills
5. Teach your kids, and your community about where you food comes from. Learn more about the Slow Food Movement.
6. Shop 1st at your local farmers market – get all of your main food from your local farmer. Find yours through Local Harvest.
7. Join a CSA with some neighbors and have fresh fruit, veggies, milk, eggs and meat delivered to your doorstep or in your neighborhood – direct from the farm!
8. Commit to cooking fresh, home-made meals several times per week with your family. Make it part of your family-time.  Teach your kids to cook!
9. Grow some of your own food. Even in urban settings this is possible.
10. Spread the word and share ideas with others, tell 10 friends. Use your blog, facebook, LinkedIn, even have a party.

If you have other ideas – please share!

• Distance from purchase location
• Environmental cost of production (carbon footprint)- includes things like pesticides, land use, overall process sustainability, byproducts
• Cost of delivery

• Quality of ingredients
• Number of ingredients
• How processed is the item

What do you think?

The inspiration for starting this site comes from many places. Allowing myself to live unconsciously with regards to my health and environment, being disgusted with a dysfunctional food system, wanting to share the local abundance that Virginia has to offer, along with my concern for the health and well-being of my family and community are only a few.

The harsh fact about food is that most Americans don’t know where it comes from. Worse yet, most don’t care. Obesity is on the rise, and related health issues are costing us millions, and in many cases our lives.

Our children are the most innocent victims. Our school lunch programs are serving highly-processed, low-nutrition food-like substances which are oftentimes the main source of meals for kids. Combine this with “food-unconscious” parents, and children are at the mercy of our decisions around food. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high, along with preventable illness such as diabetes and heart-disease – and we are actually giving them the gift of a shorter life-span.

Would we knowingly give our kids cancer? Then why is this ok?

We have allowed ourselves to evolve into a state of unconsciousness, and now it’s time for a food  r/evolution.

Jamie Oliver, otherwise known as “the Naked Chef” is a food revolutionary. A recent TED prize winner, he describes his “wish”:

“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

I have signed Jamie’s petition and started this site. What will you do?

It’s becoming more and more difficult for me to shop in big name grocery stores. Aisles and aisles of flavorless produce, brightly-colored packages of food-like substances are commonplace. These items have been my drug of choice for many years. Living unconciously – for a variety of reasons – I have eaten these items without thought. Why not? It’s easy – accessible, cheap AND with an unconcious palette, it tastes good (or so we have been told).

Stores like Walmart have long contributed to our unconscious ways – forcing people like me, over time, to completely steer clear of cheap, accessible quantity-focused shopping experience. Unfortunately, they have a huge following. The criteria for most Americans when it comes to food is: Quantity, Price, Convenience, when it should be Nutrition, Sustainability, Flavor. Walmart has been the poster-child-company of retail political in-correct-ness for years, offering cheap un-sustainable products AND destroying local economies.

In Atlantic Monthly’s March 2010 article, The Great Grocery Smackdown, Will Walmart, not Whole Foods, save the small farm and make America healthy? they discuss Wal-Mart’s initiatives to support local farmers and products, and compare their products (in flavor) to those from Whole Foods. While Whole Foods wins – the Walmart goods do hold their own. And while flavor is important, I think we need to focus on the big a few other things.

Apparently Walmart is working with the EPA on this initiative – trying to figure out how to make the local food supplier system work. There could (seemingly) be a lot of pluses to this, but I am sure it’s more complicated than that.

Let’s be realistic. There are a lot of  Walmart-haters out there, and for good reason. I have been one for a long, long time. It would be hard (and very uncool) for me to trust them. But I have to ask the question, if stores like WalMart are trying to find ways to support local farmers finding suppliers within 100 miles of their stores, and help to solve some of the challenges that small farms face – is it a good thing? Do we need big retailers like WalMart to help fix the problem and to help the general population be more conscious?

What about the responsibility of the general public of ‘regular people’ to demand local products (as opposed to letting the big retailers lead)? Where does that fit in?

And another question: Would it be a good thing if McDonald’s only served free-range, grass-fed beef? Would it be OK to like McDonald’s then? (yes, I am a McDonald’s-hater too but I know I am in the minority.)

All this is truly food for thought.  What do you think?